Emergency services searched desperately today for more bodies in the wreckage of an Air China jet, which crashed into a foggy mountain as the death toll rose to 120. Investigators were waiting to question the Chinese pilot of the Boeing 767-200 jet as about 2,500 soldiers, police and civilians hunted in heavy rain for any signs of the eight people still missing after Monday's crash near Busan, South Korea's second largest city.

According to the latest official toll, 120 people were killed, eight missing and 38 people, including the pilot, were in hospital, many in critical condition.

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A 57-year-old South Korean woman died overnight in hospital and four bodies were retrieved from the wreckage on Shineo mountain near Busan's Gimhae airport, said an official at the government emergency centre. Officials said the death toll was expected to rise as there was almost no hope of finding more survivors on the mountainside.

The transportation ministry official said the pilot would be questioned by South Korean and Chinese investigators.

South Korean officials have retrieved the plane's voice and flight data recorders. But they said it would take weeks to reach even a preliminary conclusion on the cause of the disaster.
Vice construction and transportation minister Choo Byung-Jik, however, said on Monday the plane was blown off course by strong winds.
Bureau Report